Deer, multiple cars involved in Christmas Eve crash

Oak Ridge police officers and firefighters responded to two traffic crashes and a medical emergency on Oak Ridge Turnpike near Wiltshire Drive on Christmas Eve.

by Beverly Majors/Staff

Oak Ridge police officers and firefighters responded to two traffic crashes and a medical emergency on Oak Ridge Turnpike near Wiltshire Drive on Christmas Eve.

The chaos on the Turnpike started about 6:40 p.m. when a sport utility vehicle hit a deer. The eight-point deer managed to stagger over to the other lane, which caused a vehicle to stop to keep from running over it. When that vehicle stopped, the vehicle directly behind it also stopped, but a third vehicle coming in the same direction didn't stop and slammed into the rear of the second car, causing it to hit the first stopped car.

Police reports said 20-year-old Deahna J. Moore, 111 Bradley Ave., was not injured when her Mitsubishi Eclipse hit the deer, but two others were injured in the three-vehicle, rear-end crash.

Paula Arlene Flowers, 44, 112 Mockingbird Lane, was driving the first car that stopped, but neither she nor her passengers, 17-year-old Riley Flowers, and 14-year-old Jesse Flowers, were injured.

Bryan Keith Roberts, 42, 657 Batley Road, Marlow community, and Michelle Bablitz, 23, 108 New Bedford Lane, who were the drivers of vehicles two and three, respectively, sustained minor injuries. A passenger in Bablitz's vehicle, 18-year-old Kendyl Kehrly, also of the New Bedford Lane address, was not injured.

Reports said the area where the crash happened has a small rise in the road. With that and the reported fog, visibility for Bablitz may have been difficult, reports said.

After the initial impact, Bablitz's vehicle went off the road and hit a curb in the median, and the Roberts vehicle went off the road, down an embankment and into a nearby meadow.

A few minutes after arriving on the crash scene, firefighters were flagged down by a motorist stopped in traffic because of the crash. They learned that a woman in the car was suffering from chest pain and was en route to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge when their car got bogged down in the traffic.